Perfectly Suited for Your Bod

Throughout high-school, I was a devoted reader of teen magazines - Seventeen, Cosmogirl!, YM, Ellegirl, J-14, etc. Every Spring/Summer almost all would feature an article detailing tips on 'The Right Suit for Your Body Type." If you are a female whose ever read a fashion magazine you can probably list the body types - pear shaped, hourglass, boyish... after categorizing your body the editors would suggest different suits offered by their advertisers. I no longer read teen magazines and wish I had spent those hours more productively. Especially because it never really seemed like these articles were out of the box in their approach to swimwear.

I'm sure the advice was useful to some people, but I never was satisfied with the suggestions. Now that I'm wiser(and I guess older), swimsuits aren't as scary as they used to be. In the early 1900s up until about 1925 swimwear was sewn from wool and if you wore anything that provided less than thigh to neck coverage you were a HUSSY.

Total Sliz.

With the invention of stretchy materials like latex, swim styles evolved. Ladies showed a little more thigh and suits actually echoed the contours of the body.

My favorite suits come from the 1950s - high-cut, flirty pin-up styles. Don't get me wrong I like bikinis - but weren't things a little sexier before the one-piece became two?

Did ladies of the past worry as much about which look best 'suited' them? By the 1950s swimwear became more structured and offered similar support as undergarments. Bikinis and maillots would come with bandeau-style, strapless tops. This is when padding in the bust and modesty panels in the front of suits appeared. By the 60s suits shrunk and became lighter, losing most of the structure that hid bumps and bulges. 

Today we don't have to wear wool suits that cover our nose to knees (some of those 20s suits are cute though!), and we don't have to feel uncomfortable just because an editor thinks you have a pear-shaped body. Unfortunately true vintage suits are often expensive or in unwearable condition. You can make one yourself or many retailers offer retro styles - some of the best are at Anthropologie:

[via.] Anthropologie

My opinion maybe biased but I think you can't go wrong with a retro suit. But the one thing I learned the hard way is the best look for you is something you feel comfortable in.

♡♡ur partner in crime for all time♡♡